At the beginning of this century, however, the British authorities still tended to treat the motor car as an intrusive and hostile element in the transport world and the passing of various laws still limited its freedom of use. Severe penalties were imposed for driving without proper care and attention, or at a ‘dangerous’ speed. The official speed limit was 20 mph, or 10 mph where the local authorities considered it necessary. Hyde Park was forbidden to motor vehicles from 4 am to 7 pm (a restriction which remained in force until 1910). In July 1905 alone, 903 motorists were fined for exceeding the 20 mph speed limit, while another 250 were penalized for driving in the Royal Parks at over 10 mph. The fine for such offences was normally over ?3 and could rise to a maximum of ?10, or even ?20 in the case of further offences. The great number of accidents led to the formation of an association for the protection of the highways (Highway Protection League), its promoters claiming that the league was not so much directed against the motor car as against reckless drivers. In 1905 a child was knocked down and killed by a motor car, and this terrible scandal was featured by the whole of the British national press.
However, though impeded in various ways, the advance o the motor car could not be stopped. The 1913 Motor Show was attended by 156,000 people, while 227,000 visited that held in 1919. Membership of the Automobile Association, which was 100,000 in 1914, had more than doubled by 1924. In 1918 the price of a brand-new American car costing ?250 rose to ?500 within a few months. The average price for a small car was ?185-195 in 1914, but by 1918 the same used car could cost ?300-400.
The American-style production methods introduced by William Morris (later Lord Nuffield) did much to stabilize price. A Morris Cowley 2-seater, which had cost a little over ?165 in 1915, cost just over ?142 in 1928. The 4-seater Cowley went from ?465 in 1920 to ?225 in 1922. A Morris Minor sold for ?125 in 1929, but by 1931 in had been reduced to ?100.

It is worth noting that the first true mass-produced motor car was the Ford Model T. Ford had opened a plant at Old Trafford, near Manchester, as early as 1911, and assembly of the Model T began there three years after its appearance on the American market. Mass-production, in the modern sense of the term, only really began, however, just before the outbreak of the First World War. The total of 19,000 vehicles, including motor cars and commercial vehicles, produced in 1911, rapidly became 34,000 in 1913, thanks chiefly to the output of the Ford plants. In1920 there were some 187,000 motor cars on the road in Britain; 18 months later there were 242,500.